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Greenlit: Jimmy’s Forest, Channel 4

Jimmy’s Forest w/t (4 x 60′) – Jimmy Doherty studies, explores and celebrates the wonders of British woodland. His escapades and explorations take place from a unique base – a spectacular tree house in the depths of a pristine Norfolk forest.

Constructed across two iconic Oak trees, the tree house is connected to high walkways and zip lines allowing Jimmy to explore the secret life of the species that dwell there – from the treetops down to the forest floor. The magic of the woodland is brought to life in Jimmy’s ‘Boys Own’ laboratory – a tree house annex where he can get up-close and delve deeper into the biology, ecology and social history of his forest.

When he’s not just having fun, Jimmy invites expert guests to his tree house camp, including bush cook foragers, ecologists, traditional craftspeople, entomologists, druids and all manner of country folk.

When he can’t find the answers in his wood he takes field trips; tagging new-born red deer calves in the wild, discovering how the mighty oak built Nelson’s Trafalgar warships and exploring the threat of the deathwatch beetle as it munches its way through some of our oldest and most important buildings. All to help him offer new insights into tree ecology, wildlife, and traditional skills – and trace the integral role that woodlands have played in our island story.

Back in his forest, Jimmy is free to create his own hands-on experiments to help him understand the inner workings of his tree, the woodland around it and the vast array of creatures within it. He scales the height of the woodland canopy, braves the animals of the night and digs in to life on the forest floor. With the help of a professional free-diver he learns to slow his heart rate dramatically in an experiment designed to explore the mysterious behavior of hibernating hedgehogs.

The series charts the unfolding of all four seasons – as the habitat surrounding the tree house awakens, bursts into splendour, procreates and then shuts down to slumber through the darkened months. By the end of the series viewers should be familiar with a completely new side to a woodland world they thought they knew so well.

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